


and coffee the morning after

by impossibletruths



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Campaign One, Didn't Know They Were Dating, F/F, Meet-Cute, Neighbors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 12:52:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13927512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossibletruths/pseuds/impossibletruths
Summary: Keyleth gets coffee with a neighbor. It escalates from there.





	and coffee the morning after

**Author's Note:**

> based on a prompt from [@vexahliaderolo](http://www.vexahliaderolo.tumblr.com). this was supposed to be for femslash februrary but time isn't real so who cares

She doesn’t usually do her laundry quite so late, but Percy has invited her last-minute to some family thing, and family things for Percy always end up being capital-T Things, and she’s not going to leave her best friend to face that alone.

But it would have been nice if he’d given her a little warning.

So she’s down in the basement laundry room sometime past midnight, washing that one nice dress Vex gave her for her birthday, and Percy’s good pants too, because they’re covered in the result of his attempt to rewire the toaster. She sits on one of the machines, feet kicking idly, nose buried in a book while she waits for the dryer to finish, and so does not notice the company until someone says, softly, “Oh.”

Keyleth’s head snaps up to see a diminutive woman with bleached-white hair standing in the doorway, arms full of clothes covered in––

“Is that blood?”

The woman glances down at the load in her arms, and the prominent rust-colored stains, then back up at Keyleth.

“Um,” she says. “Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“I, um. Didn’t expect anyone to be down here.” The woman says it half as a question. She’s got a sweet voice, a little soft. Keyleth stares.

“Right, yeah. Cause it’s like, two a.m.”

“Yeah.”

“Um.”

“I didn’t kill anyone,” the woman says. “I’m not an axe murderer or anything.”

“No, I didn’t, um. I didn’t think you were.”

“Oh. Okay, well. That’s good.”

“What is––”

She answers before Keyleth manages to get the words out. “I’m a nurse.”

“Oh.” Oh, yes, that would–– That would make more sense than an axe murderer living in a run-down apartment a tram ride away from downtown.

“Yeah, I just.” She shrugs a little, raising the clothes in her hand in a  _I get how this looks_  sort of gesture. “My scrubs.”

Right, right. That... makes a lot of sense. “Do people usually bleed all over you?”

“Only on the good days,” the woman says, and there’s a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, and Keyleth smiles back.

“I’m Pike,” the woman says. “3C.”

“Keyleth,” says Keyleth. “4A.”

“Nice to meet you, Keyleth. Um, do you think maybe I could use that washer?”

“Oh! Yes! Sorry!” She hops off the washing machine as Pike starts to fill it, hovering awkwardly with her book still in hand. She considers the quite nice view of Pike’s back, then hastily looks away. She’s not sure what to do with her eyes, or her hands, or any of herself really, and can’t seem to find anything to say.

She is saved, thankfully, by the alarm on her phone telling her the load is done. Her dress is still a bit damp––she wasn’t really supposed to dry it in the dryer, but she’s only got so much time and, well, it’ll be fine––but she bundles it into her arms anyway.

“Um,” she says to Pike. “Goodnight, I guess.”

“Oh, are you going up?” says Pike, a little awkward. “I’ll come with.”

They ride the clanking elevator up in silence, until:

“You should come by sometime,” says Pike. “I’m trying to meet everyone in the building. Maybe for coffee?”

“I’d like that,” Keyleth says, just as they reach the third floor, and Pike grins.

“Okay! Great! Have a good evening,” she says, oddly chipper for about two in the morning. Keyleth likes that.

“You too!” she replies as the doors begin to close. “Good luck with your blood!”

The last thing she sees before the doors click shut again is Pike’s mouth open to respond, but then the elevator moves again and the woman disappears from view. Keyleth leans her forehead against the elevator doors, eyes closed.

“Jeez,” she mutters to herself, and nearly falls out of the elevator when the doors open again one floor up and she’s still leaning against them.

At least there is no one around this time to witness her make a fool of herself.

* * *

She takes to doing her laundry late at night, in the hopes she might run into Pike again, but the next time they do happen to meet is not long after sunrise one Saturday morning, both standing outside the same door, 3A, where someone has elected to play what seems to be the entirety of their CD collection at full blast.

“I swear,” Pike is staying when Keyleth stumbles out of the stairwell, hair a mess of a braid and cardigan wrapped around herself like a bathrobe, “I’m going to kill him.”

“Kill who?” Keyleth asks, scrubbing one hand across her face and wishing Percy weren’t the kind to sleep through the ending of the world.

“ _Him_ ,” says Pike, pounding on the door. It opens a moment later, and a small, brown-haired man in a richly-embroidered purple bathrobe stares out at them. The robe seems more a formality than anything, given how loosely it is tied, and how much of his bare chest she can still see. Keyleth glances at it, then carefully stares over his shoulder instead.

“Good morning,” he crows with a broad grin over the strains of a song Keyleth’s fairly certain she recognizes. “How can I help you two beautiful women this morning.”

“Well,” says Keyleth, still not quite looking at him. “Um, I mean, if you wouldn’t mind turning down your music––”

“Scanlan,” Pike cuts in, somehow managing to sound both very sweet and very angry at the same time, and Keyleth stares at her with more than a little awe. “If you don’t turn that off I will personally take the entirety of your CD collection and burn it.”

He gasps. “Even the Queen?”

“Especially the Queen.”

He presses a hand to his chest. “Blasphemy. And from a holy woman such as yourself––”

“It’s six in the morning, Scanlan.”

“True art knows no time.”

“True art can use headphones until at least nine.”

Scanlan––Keyleth supposes that’s his name––sighs, then pulls out his phone and hits a button and the music cuts out. “How could I refuse and angel such as yourself, who has pulled herself from the comfort of her own home to ask this of me? And in such a fashion too.”

He winks at her with a grin and Keyleth realizes quite suddenly the Pike is not wearing any pants. She feels her face go hot.

Pike, on the other hand, only raises and eyebrow, and Scanlan ducks his head.

“I’m sorry,” he says, only a little unwilling.

“Thank you, Scanlan,” she says, and kisses him on the cheek. Keyleth stares at the exchange.

“You could come over,” he suggests. “I just got the new album you were talking about. We could listen to it  _quietly_ ––”

“Maybe later,” she says, as clear a dismissal as anything, and the man deflates a little, then grins again and turns to Keyleth.

“I am most sorry for interrupting your rest,” he says, with a bow of all things. He offers his hand to her when he straightens. “Scanlan Shorthalt.”

“Uh,” says Keyleth. “Keyleth.”

“Wonderful to meet you, Uh Keyleth,” says Scanlan. “D’you like my sound system?”

“It’s... loud,” she says. He grins.

“I know. It’s great.”

Pike huffs, but she doesn’t sound too irritated about it. “We’ll see you later, Scanlan.”

“Of course, my love,” he says, and with one last smile and wink he closes the door. Keyleth stares at the brass numbers nailed just above the eyehole. Pike shakes her head.

“You, um,” says Keyleth. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“No,” Pike replies. “He’s just like that.”

“Oh.”

“He’s really quite nice, mostly,” she says. She stares at the door, then Keyleth, then says, “Sorry I’m not, y’know.” She gestures at her legs. Keyleth glances down, then looks away.

“Oh, it’s fine,” she says, voice a little too high. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Well,” says Pike. “Since you’re awake too, would you care for that cup of coffee?”

“Yes,” Keyleth says, a little too quickly. “Yes, I would like that a lot.”

“Okay,” says Pike. “Great!”

Keyleth trails her back to her own apartment, right next door, and is largely unsurprised to find it looks just like her own. The decor is different––fewer plants and odd mechanical bits, more yellow and something that looks like it might be a shrine in the corner of the living room. Pike leads her to the kitchen, where a small table with a white tablecloth sits pressed against the window. She busies herself at the coffeepot for a moment, and Keyleth sits hesitantly at the table, doing her best to mask her mounting panic.

Through the window the sun has begun to rise, falling slanted across the table, and if Keyleth tilts her head just so she can feel the rays on her face. The warmth of it is calming, and the coffeepot begins to clatter, the rich smell of coffee filling the narrow kitchen, and sound and the smell and the light washes away her prickling anxiety. She breathes deep and turns to look at Pike, who stands at the counter but is staring at Keyleth. She smiles softly when Keyleth meets her eyes, and Keyleth feels her heart catch a little. She smiles back, tentative.

“I’ll be right back,” Pike says. “I should probably, um. Put pants on.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Keyleth replies. “I mean, you don’t have to. Unless you want to, I mean.”

“Oh, no,” says Pike. “I hate wearing pants.”

“Me too,” Keyleth says, and laughs, and Pike’s soft smile blooms into a full grin. She is, Keyleth thinks, really pretty.

“No pants, then,” Pike says, and it’s ridiculous, this whole thing is ridiculous, sitting in the kitchen of a woman she’s only met once, talking about pants, waiting for the coffee to finish, sun warm on her hands on the table in front of her, heart fluttering in her chest. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and Keyleth cannot bring herself to be anything but happy.

When the coffee’s ready Pike brings it over in two mismatched mugs, and they sit across from each other at the table which is so small that their feet touch, and Keyleth doesn’t mind. Their conversation winds and wends, but Pike doesn’t seem to mind her jumping logic or wandering thoughts. They sit there long enough for the sunlight to shift across the table, coffee long-since finished, and it is nice in a way things have not been nice before. Pike’s legs bump up against her own, and she smiles sunshine-bright, and Keyleth does not want to leave.

Her phone buzzes. Percy. Pike watches her read his message and sighs.

“I guess I should probably let you go.”

“Oh, no, it’s–– I mean, yes, sorry, yes, but I’d like to stay if I could! It’s just.” She waves her phone with a halfhearted shrug. “My roommate.”

“I understand.”

“But maybe you can give me your number? So I can, um, return the favor?”

Pike brightens, plugging her contact information in when Keyleth hands the phone over, and Keyleth floats home on cloud nine.

* * *

_hi pike it’s keyleth_

She stares at the screen as the three little dots start to blink, chewing her lip as she waits for a response.

_hi keyleth!_

She takes a deep breath.

_do you want to get coffee again sometime later?_

Pike’s reply comes a split second later.

_sure!_

_okay. cool. have you ever been to the slayer’s cake?_

_yes!!_

And from there it is logistics, schedules and all that sort of mess, but when she emerges from her room with plans for coffee Thursday next, she’s smiling.

“What’s the good new?” Percy asks, looking up from his computer.

“I’m getting coffee with a friend,” she tells him, opening the fridge in search of something that’s not old takeout. She’ll have to talk to Percy about his eating habits. Also his sleeping habits. Also–– Well. She’ll have to talk to Percy.

“Ah. A friend.”

“It’s not like that,” she tells him automatically, and he blinks up at her from behind his glasses, far too laconic to be honest.

“No,” he says, humoring her entirely, but his eyes are glinting. “No, of course not.”

She hits his arm, but not even that can wipe the smile off her face. Percy pats her hand and goes back to his work.

* * *

Coffee is wonderful. And then a few days later, lunch is wonderful. And then the show Vax is in the next weekend is wonderful. And then Scanlan’s gig is wonderful. And Percy smirks through it all, and Vex shakes her head with a long-suffering sort of look when Keyleth tells her about it, and Keyleth’s heart keeps doing little flips when she sees Pike and she’s pretty sure she knows what that means but that’s scary, so she just. Tamps that down. A lot.

The last person she expects to bring it up is Pike herself.

They’re sitting at a bar, some little place called Hops Machina or something like that, and Keyleth is halfway through her drink when Pike leans over the table and says, “Keyleth, I want to ask you something.”

“Okay,” says Keyleth, who has known since she started drinking that she can’t hold her alcohol and is beginning to feel comfortably loose. “What’s the question?”

“Are we dating?”

“Oh,” says Keyleth, and the nice light buzz disappears in an instant, and she frowns. “I. Um.”

“Because,” says Pike firmly, “I’d like to. Date.”

“Oh,” Keyleth repeats. Her brain seems to be shorting out.

“But if you don’t that’s okay,” Pike assures her, and Keyleth scrambles to put the blurring static of her mind into actual words before Pike gets the wrong impression.

“No, no,” she manages. “I mean, yes. I would like to date.” There, that’s clear.

Pike stares at her. “Really?”

“Yeah,” she says. And then, because it’s important to explain, she says, “I just, um. Didn’t think you wanted to.”

“No, I do,” Pike says. “I invited you for coffee when I was in my pajamas, remember?”

Keyleth does. Well. “Oh, right.”

“Because I liked you.”

“Oh.”

“A lot.”

“Right.”

“Yeah.”

Keyleth blinks a couple times, and Pike stares at her. “Okay,” she says. “Well, cool.”

“Yeah,” Pike says, and for a moment they stare at each other, and then they burst out laughing.

“We’re so dumb,” Keyleth says, and Pike nods.

“So dumb. It’s okay though, I don’t mind being dumb with you.”

And Keyleth grins, and Pike takes her hand across the table, and they are dumb they are  _so_  dumb, but Pike’s holding her hand and they’re dating and that part isn’t dumb at all that part is  _wonderful_.

Percy will be insufferable, of course, but right now she doesn’t care.

* * *

The room smells like coffee when she wakes up, like coffee and Pike, and she pulls herself out of Pike’s bed and wraps herself in her cardigan and emerges from the bedroom to find Pike standing at the counter. The sun spills across the table, and two miss-matched mugs there in the light, and Pike smiles at her, and Keyleth leans down for a kiss, and everything is soft and warm and beautiful and perfect.

“Good morning,” she says with a smile, and Pike grins back, wild and brilliant.

“Good morning.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at [teammompike](http://www.teammompike.tumblr.com)


End file.
